The Primitive Fish -Hook. -340 



spine of a cactus, bending it to suit their purpose, and very simple 

 barbless hooks of this kind may be seen in the collections of the 

 National Museum at Washington. 



Undoubtedly, in primitive times, hooks of a compound character 

 were used. Just as men tipped a deer's antler with a flint, they 

 combined more than one material in the making of their hooks, lash- 



SHKI.I. HOOK FROM SANTA BARBARA. (NATIONAL MUSEUM, BOSTON.) 



ing together a shank of bone or wood with a bronze barb. It would 

 be almost impossible in a single article to follow all the varieties 

 of hooks used and the ingenuity displayed in their manufacture. 

 Occasionally, a savage will construct a lure for fish which rivals the 

 daintiest fly ever made by the most fastidious of anglers. In Pro- 

 fessor Mayer's collection there is an exceedingly clever hook, coming 

 from the North-western coast, which shows very fine lapidary work. 

 A small red quartoze pebble of great hardness has been rounded, 

 polished, and joined to a piece of bone. The piece is small, not 

 more than an inch and three-quarters in length, and might weigh an 

 ounce and a half. In the shank of bone a small hook is hidden. It 

 somewhat imitates a shrimp. The parts are joined together by lash- 

 ings of tendon, and these are laid in grooves cut into the stone. It 

 must have taken much toil to perfect this clever artificial bait, and, 

 as it is to-day, it might be used with success by a clever striped-bass 

 fisherman at Newport. 



In this necessarily brief study of primitive fishing, I have 

 endeavored to show the genesis of the fish-hook, from the stone 

 gorge to the more perfected implement of to-day. Simple as 



